Sudden Change
by Vigilluminatus
Summary: What if 12 year old Buttercup wakes up and finds her blanket and pyjamas covered in blood? Bubbles is in hysterics, the Professor is at a loss of words, so it's up to Blossom to explain the mysteries of puberty to her frightened sisters. Oneshot.


I really don't know why I wrote this fanfic, after all I'm talking about things I've never experienced myself. I don't even know what kind of story this is, after all is part humor and part serious sibling bonding. Still I hope that the charas aren't too OOC and the story is hardly believable. Sorry bout grammar mistakes and such, but English isn't my mother tongue.

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own anything concerning the Powerpuffs. **  
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* * *

**Sudden Change**

_(The City of Townsville)_

_Narrator: The City of Townsville! A City constantly threatened by superpowered villains, evil schemes and total annihilation, not necessarily in this order. A__ City that would have faced supernatural destruction even more often than Tokyo, Gotham City and Smallville altogether, if it hadn't been for three young superheroines, who have been defending their hometown since birth. Three precious little girls living in the Professors house and … yes, what is it?_

_(whispering)_

_Narrator: Oh, I'm very sorry, dear audience, I was just informed that I was stung by a tsetse fly, which mysteriously found it's way into our precious little town, and that I slept the whole childhood of our little girls away. Cause of that we will immediately take a look at them to see all the changes they have gone through in these…_

_(further whispering – scene changes to the Professors house)_

_Narrator: … __7 years. Now let's see what our now 12 year old teenage superheroines are up to right now!_

_(even more whispering – scene changes to the inside of the house)_

_Narrator: Ah, as I heard it has been__ a rather peaceful time in Townsville since many villains have chucked up their jobs after losing to our girls every time. Well, they should have known from the start that they can never win against our completely fearless…_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

It was a scream often heard in Townsville, a scream of shock and terror, a scream that was pleasing every villain's ears just before he was taken down by the Powerpuff Girls. Everyone was used to hear such a scream once in a while, even Professor Utonium, who was right now working in his lab. Hardly believable, but he was even used to hear this kind of scream in his own house. Of course, his daughters were nearly indestructible little amazons, so you'd think they were afraid of very few things. But the people thinking that mostly forgot that Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were also young girls.

The Professor sighed. He had thought that such screaming would become rarer once the girls hit a certain age. After all, one shouldn't be afraid of bugs, thunder or shadows anymore once he or she became a teenager. But "one" obviously didn't include Bubbles, the Professor mused as he opened the door to his lab. As beautiful his blonde daughter had become in the last years, with long, silky hair still in pigtails, a heart-shaking smile and a figure to die for, the inner bubbles was still the childish and sometimes naïve little girl that liked to play with dolls – although today she was more interested in dressing them up than actually playing with them – and that had no clue why boys were suddenly looking at her so strangely – a feature the Professor was very grateful for. And well, she still was afraid of all the things she had been afraid of in her childhood, the only difference was that her voice had become even louder in the last years, or at least it seemed to be louder to the Professor.

The Professor grimaced a little when the thought entered his mind, that Bubbles wasn't the only one who occasionally threatened the silence in their house. About one year ago Blossom had discovered the girlish ritual of telephone chatting, and as disciplined and well behaved his red-haired daughter was otherwise, when she was talking with her friends, she sometimes forgot that there were other persons living in this house too. Rather often the silence in his lab was disturbed by a sudden "ARE YOU KIDDIN ME?", "HE DID _WHAT_?" or "He's so CUTE!", squealed in megaphone-volume and in glass-threatening frequency. Since he knew these signs of puberty, he had once asked her cautiously, if there were any boys that she was interested in. After all Bubbles wasn't the only girl with beauty in this house, even if in Blossoms case it was a more mature beauty.

Since they had entered school Blossom had been spending very much time in the library, but thanks to the crime fighting missions with her sisters she was in good shape. Her hair was still longer than Bubbles', although it was done in a ponytail right now and it lacked the red ribbon. But the Professor presumed that it was mostly her self-confidence and her quick tongue that mesmerized most of the boys in school, not – well, not just – her good looks. Well, Blossom had teased him a bit, but in the end she had assured him that currently there was no boy in her life and that she would tell him if there was one. He had felt reassured then, after all Blossom was a responsible young woman and he trusted her. Still, a father was allowed to worry when listening to such topics in her telephone conversations, wasn't he?

But the scream had definitely been a scream of pure terror, and aside from that Blossom wasn't even at home right now but in the library, so the Professor directly headed to Bubbles' room. And he was rather perplexed to find it empty, aside from some half-dressed dolls on the floor. Right then Bubbles screamed again, but strangely enough it came from Buttercups room. The Professor frowned. Was Buttercup trying to scare her sister with some horror stories about insects or something else again? He hoped not, last time it had taken him several hours to calm the sobbing Bubbles down. But he had scolded Buttercup for this, and she had mumbled something about "not doing it again". Had she broken her promise?

"What's wrong?" he asked loud. "Are you scaring Bubbles again, Buttercup? I think I told you to…"

He stopped when he looked through the open door and his eyes went wide. Bubbles was sitting on the floor, her hands covering her lips and her eyes full of tears. Her gaze was fixed at her sister, who seemed to just have woken up. When he looked at his black-haired daughter, he realized that it hadn't been Bubbles who had screamed first. Presumably she had heard Buttercups scream and had wanted to help her sister, but she seemed to be even more shocked than the Professor himself of what they saw.

Buttercup was laying in bed, wearing dark green pyjamas that looked a bit too small on her. In the last years she had grown a little taller than her sisters, a fact she was very proud of. That and her firmly trained body, which she had gained through all the sports she was doing in her free time, had led to some long and loud discussions between Buttercup and Bubbles about womanly beauty. They had even tried to involve the Professor in their argument, but he had managed to wriggle himself out of their early pubertal debate. It seemed he wouldn't have that much luck this time.

Buttercup was obviously mortified. Her short black hair was messy and she looked as unmade as her bed, but what worried the Professor much more was the look on her face. She was pale like a ghost. Her mouth was open and frozen in this state like the rest of her face. Her big green eyes were opened widely and were riveted to one spot, just like Bubbles' were. It was a look of pure shock and… fear. The Professor had never seen such a look on Buttercups face. To see his toughest and bravest daughter in this state somehow… scared him. And when he finally looked onto the spot his two daughters were staring at, he didn't know if he should be even more scared or amused.

It was blood. A rather small spot on the blankets – fortunately not her "blankie", which she still had as he knew – and a far bigger reddened spot on a rather _intimate_ area on Buttercups pyjama pants.

Bubbles broke the silence. After some choking noises she suddenly spun around, buried her face in the Professor's chest and began to wail loudly.

"WAAAAAHH!" she cried. "Professor, Buttercup's going to DIE! You have to save her! Please, don't let her die!"

"I'm… hurt" Buttercup muttered, still deeply shocked. "I'm… bleeding." Then she opened her eyes as if she had just realized what she had said. "I'm _bleeding!_"

"SAVE HER! YOU HAVE TO SAVE HER, DADDY!"

The Professor barely managed to keep his head. He was fairly used to Bubbles being emotional, but usually her sisters were here to bring her down to earth again. But right now he had two unstable daughters to take care of. This was one of the moments he had feared more than anything else in his life. He cleared his throat.

"Ahm, girls, you just need to… calm down. You know that's… a perfectly normal thing…"

"I'm BLEEDING!" Buttercup suddenly yelled, her voice taking another step towards madness. She tried to crawl away from the blood in panic fear, which obviously didn't work. "Why am I BLEEDING?"

"Sister!" In a second Bubbles was at Buttercup's side and put a hand onto her forehead. "Are you sick? What can I do? What can we do, Professor? I DON'T WANT HER TO DIE, OH PLEASE DON'T DIE!" She looked at him with teary, frightened eyes, which somehow brought him back to reality. He quickly shoved his nervousness aside, sat down on the bed and grabbed Buttercups shoulders.

"Buttercup, Buttercup, _listen to me! _You are _not _going to die, do you hear me? You are _not _dying!"

Bubbles simply continued crying, but the words somehow managed to find their way into Buttercups panic-stricken brain. She blinked and her eyes finally looked at him and _recognized_ him.

"Dad?" she asked with a shaking voice. Bad sign. She never called him "Dad" except if she was sentimental or scared to death… well, yes, she _never_ called him "Dad". "What's happening to me?"

"Calm down, honey, please" he said with a soothing voice, at least he hoped it sounded soothing. He wasn't that calm either, since he was facing the moment where he had to tell his daughter about… _these_ things. "Believe me, this is nothing unusual. Every… woman goes through that."

"Oh NOOOOOO!" Bubbles sobbed. "I'm gonna die TOO!"

"You aren't going to die, Bubbles" the Professor said and sighed. "None of you will. This… bleeding is just a sign of… growing up."

"WHAT?" Buttercup shrieked, her fear skyrocketing. "You mean I will bleed even MORE the older I get?"

"Yes… ah, NO! No… I mean, it's not dangerous, honey. Every woman goes through that once in a month…"

"A _MONTH?_"

"Does Buttercup have to go to the hospital now, Professor?" Bubbles asked meekly. "Do Blossom and I have to go too?"

"No one needs to go to the hospital, Bubbles" the Professor said. He looked at Buttercup again who was still panicky. He gulped. Why was this so hard to explain? "No one will die and no one is hurt. Quite the contrary, this bleeding is a sign of… of life."

Buttercup looked at him blankly.

"But I thought humans come to life in a cauldron" Bubbles argued. She sniffed, but at least she wasn't crying anymore. "Wasn't that how you created us, Professor?"

"Erm… yes, that's true." The Professor cringed. How do you explain something like sexuality to someone, who was born in a lab's cauldron? "But… but you and Blossom are special, you know? Other children aren't born that way."

"They are not?" Bubbles was so surprised that she forgot she was actually sad. "How are they born then?"

"Who _cares_?" Buttercup shouted angrily and shot the Professor an impatient glance. She was still scared, but her growing frustration dimmed that feeling a bit. "I wanna know why I'm frickin' BLEEDING!"

"I know honey, I know" the Professor quickly replied. He took a deep breathe. "You know, this bleeding is caused by…"

"Why are you guys so nois… oh! I can see why."

Three heads turned to the door to see Blossom, who had finally returned from the library. There was a strange look on her face, somewhere between sympathy and amusement. She was looking at the red spot on the blankets.

"Blossom!" the Professor uttered, somehow embarrassed. "You are back again?"

Blossom grinned quickly cause of the redundancy of this question, then she looked at Buttercup. "So you finally did it, sis?" she asked good-humouredly. "Was about time!"

In the next moment Bubbles was hugging her. "You are hurt too, Blossom?" she cried, tears flowing down her cheeks again. "Why didn't you say something?"

"Hurt?" Blossom replied confused. "What are you talking about?" She looked into the embarrassed-scared face of Buttercup and the totally embarrassed face of the Professor. "Didn't you tell them, Professor?"

"Well, ah… you see, I was just beginning to…"

"Tell me WHAT?" Buttercup interrupted them, but then her anger left her. She hugged her legs and asked quietly. "What is… happening to me?"

Blossom sighed. The Professor didn't seem to be the right person to explain these things. She should have known.

"You've just experienced your first period, Buttercup" she expounded with a calm and reassuring voice. "That's nothing to be worried about. The period is just a sign that your body is able to bear children." She winked. "Not everyone is born from a cauldron, you know?"

"Children?" Buttercup asked, dismayed. Her hands flew to her belly. "You mean I'm gonna…?"

"Don't worry, sis" Blossom calmed her down. "You have to do some other things before getting pregnant. The period is just showing you that you are _prepared _to carry a child" She looked at the Professor. "Have you told her how often this will happen, Professor?"

"Wha… oh yes, I have" he said hastily.

"Good. Oh, and by the way, you can stop hugging me, Bubbles." Blossom grinned briefly as the blonde girl quickly released her, blushing heavily. Then she sat down next to Buttercup, put her hand onto her sister's knee and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, Buttercup" she comforted her. "This is a completely normal biological process, nothing dangerous or freaky. I'll tell you everything about it, okay?" She looked back. "Maybe you should listen to me too, Bubbles."

"NO!" Bubbles exclaimed and covered her ears. "I don't want to hear such things!"

"But you need to, Bubbles" Blossom told her, now with a serious face. "This will happen to you too, sooner or later. Don't you wanna be prepared then? Or do you want to be scared?" Like Buttercup, she thought. She reached out her hand. Bubbles seemed to be as mortified as Buttercup had been a few minutes ago, but she reluctantly took her sisters hand and came closer. Blossom smiled. Then she looked at the Professor. "Would you please leave us alone, Professor?" she asked politely, although with an amused tone. "We'll have some girl talk now."

"Sure" the Professor muttered, flashed a weak smile and left the room rather quickly. Blossom closed the door behind him. It stayed locked for a long time this day

* * *

Buttercup tossed and turned in her bed. No matter what she did, she wasn't able to sleep this night. Part of her was angry at herself for being so emotional earlier this day, part of her was still a little scared about her… period and all the things Blossom had told her and Bubbles, and none of the two parts would let her sleep. She sighed. How could Blossom stay so calm? If it was true that this… _thing _happened every month, then how could other girls live with that? She had been scared out of her mind, when she had seen the red spot on her bed this morning. 

The girl sighed and tossed her bed cover aside. This wasn't gonna work. She needed to take a walk or something like that. Silently she put on her slippers and walked out of her room. Even more quietly she closed her door. It was bad enough everyone had seen her so… vulnerable earlier. But to be seen now sneaking out cause she couldn't sleep anymore, that would have been unbearable. But just when she arrived at the stairs she stopped. Hadn't she heard a voice?

Yes, she had. She could hear Blossoms soothing voice through the door to her red-haired sister's room. A quick glance to Bubble's open door told her everything she needed to know. It seemed that she wasn't the only one unable to find sleep. She remained silent for a moment. Suddenly a walk seemed to be a less preferable option to spend this night. But… if she opened this door, then she'd admit her fear… again! True, her sisters already knew that she had been scared like never before, but to show that _again_…

Suddenly the door opened and Blossom head appeared. She smiled. "You were right, Bubbles" she told Buttercups other sister inside. "Someone is walking around here."

"Who is it?" she heard the quiet voice of Bubbles. Buttercup sighed, frustrated. Wasn't she even allowed to decide herself?

"Do you want to talk?" Blossom asked her, suddenly serious. "Is there still something on your mind, Buttercup?"

"It's not like that" Buttercup snapped. "It's just…" She cut off in mid-sentence and looked down. Whom was she trying to fool?

Blossom waited a few seconds before she spoke further. "You want to come in?" she asked her gently. "You can tell me inside too what you were gonna do out of your room."

For a moment Buttercup considered refusing this offer, but then she sighed. She often was very stubborn, but right now this would just be silly. "Alright" she growled. "But just for a few minutes." Blossom had at least the decency not to grin.

When she entered the room she opened her eyes, surprised. She had expected Bubbles sitting on the bed and talking with Blossom. She hadn't expected the blonde girl beneath the covers! Buttercup threw Blossom a sharp glance.

"The heck?" she burst out. "What are you explaining to her now? Even more gross details about a woman's body?"

Blossom had told her and Bubbles everything about the period and other things that would possibly happen in puberty, but she hadn't gone into detail too much when talking about sex. Buttercup hoped that her sister hadn't been talking about this theme further because she didn't know any more about it. As scary all the changes to a woman's body in puberty had sounded… to Buttercup the few hints about sex Blossom had given to her sisters seemed to be even more disgusting. After all, the hints included _boys._

Blossom grinned briefly. "Nothing like that" she answered, seemingly slightly amused. "Bubbles just wasn't able to sleep. She asked me if she could stay with me this night."

Before Buttercup could say something about Bubbles being a big baby, the blond girl asked her: "Buttercup, are you frightened too?" Her big blue eyes looked very worried. Well, Buttercup couldn't really blame her. After all, she would be waiting in fear for her first period from now on, while Buttercup had been blessed with ignorance until it had happened today.

"I'm not frightened!" she answered more harshly than she wanted. Her next words were calmer. "I just… wanted to ask you something."

"Spill it out" Blossom told her while sitting down on her bed and stroking Bubbles' hair.

"Were you… scared?" Buttercup asked, looking into her sisters eyes.

"Scared of what?"

"When you had your first period" she specified. "I guess you knew everything about it way before it happened. I just want to know if you were a little frightened nonetheless." The last word was very hard to say. "Please."

For a few seconds Blossom remained calm. Bubbles looked at Buttercup stunned. To her it had been unbelievable to see a scared Buttercup this morning. But a Buttercup pleading for something was at least as unbelievable. Every new silent second left Buttercup more anxious. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to say something sarcastic to alleviate this last word, but she remained calm. She _had _to know.

"Yes."

She looked up again. Blossom was smiling at her gently. "Yes" she repeated. "You are right, I knew everything that would happen from a book. And yes, when it happened, I was scared like hell."

"But why?" Bubbles asked her, looking quite puzzled. "If you knew what would happen…"

"That doesn't matter, Bubbles. I knew that every woman gets the period at a certain age, I knew that it wasn't harmful, I knew what I had to afterwards. I changed my clothes and my blankets, I washed myself and I wore a sanitary pad afterwards. But I couldn't get rid of the feeling, that something wasn't right with me. Despite my knowledge I felt… helpless." She smiled. "And I couldn't sleep that night."

"What did you do?" Buttercup asked, hoping that she didn't sound _very_ desperate.

"I woke the Professor" Blossom answered. "I told him everything. My preparations, the things I had done after it had happened, even where I bought the sanitary pads. He just listened to me and held my hand. And after that I asked him… no, I _begged _him to stay with me until I'd manage to fall asleep again. And he stayed."

"But you aren't scared anymore, or are you?" Bubbles asked silently.

"No, I'm not" Blossom assured her while she lied down next to her sister again. "It's simply a part of life, Bubbles. Like going to school, fighting crime…" She looked at Buttercup, who was watching her sisters silently. "… or asking for help."

"Didn't you wanna say _begging_?" Buttercup muttered dryly.

"You don't need to beg, Buttercup" Blossom told her softly. She moved a bit closer to Bubbles and pointed at the empty part of her bed. "If you want to stay, then just lie down."

"All three of us in one bed?" Buttercup asked, but she knew this was her last poor defense. "Don't you think this will be uncomfortable?"

"Come on, Buttercup. You'd even help Bubbles fall asleep" Blossom argued while putting her finger onto Bubbles' mouth to keep it shut.

Buttercup even managed to hesitate for one more second, but then she gave in. "Alright" she agreed, feeling relieved secretly. Though as she lied down she couldn't forbear mumbling: "But if you _ever _tell _anyone _about this…"

"But sister" Bubbles protested. "We would _never _do such a thing!"

"Yeah" Buttercup agreed and showed her sisters one of her rare serene smiles. "Yeah, I know. Blossom... thank you."

"Don't mention it" her sister told her, closing her eyes. "That's what sister are there for."

A little while later all three of them were fast asleep, feeling safe and content together, just like it had been seven years ago.

_Narrator: So, once again the day is saved, thanks to... sanitary pads?_

* * *

The ending was a little cheesy, but I'm quite satisfied. What do you think? 


End file.
